Hindustan Unilever Limited (BSE:500696) said it is "evaluating various options" for its India ice cream business following parent Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR)'s decision to demerge its ?7.9 billion ice cream unit by the end of 2025. "The ice cream business has an inherently different business model, including a cold-chain go-to-market operating model, seasonality, and a different innovation rhythm compared to the rest of Unilever's business. As far as the Indian ice cream business is concerned, we are evaluating the various options in light of this announcement," an HUL spokesperson said in response to Mint's queries.

"The ice cream business for HUL is less than 3% of its India business. But for parent Unilever it is around 13% - 15%," said Abneesh Roy, analyst at Nuvama Securities. "Important to note that in the tea business, HUL chose to retain it while its parent sold off other countries' businesses.

So we do see a low probability of any big change in HUL". "Through an end-to-end focus across all lines of the P&L, we have been generating gross savings c.6% of turnover every year. This provides us crucial fuel for growth allowing us to invest competitively behind our brands and future capabilities," HUL's spokesperson said.

"We will closely assess the global initiatives of Unilever under the productivity programme and assimilate best practices to take Symphony to its next phase".